U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Ala.) Presses Jack Smith During Senate Judiciary Hearing

[0:00] thank you so much mr chairman and i'm also glad that we can talk about women's sports in the [0:04] judiciary hearing we certainly missed our colleagues on the other side of the aisle [0:08] last week when we were talking about protecting women's sports making sure that women have that [0:15] space and they can learn to grow and learn to lead in a fair way that is safe and that is common [0:27] sense so i enjoy watching caitlyn clark and i want to make sure that we continue to protect those [0:33] spaces for young women to come and i would hope our colleagues on the other side of the aisle [0:37] could join us in that so i'm glad we got to bring that up um mr chairman i appreciate you convening [0:43] the hearing today on such an important topic and thank you for the work that you've done over the [0:49] last several years conducting rigorous oversight of the arctic frost investigation we appreciate [0:55] your leadership on this um and we need to bring public attention to this investigation and those [1:01] that followed it the issue really gets at the heart of one of the most fundamental principles of our [1:07] republic and that is that justice must be blind and that no american should be targeted by our justice [1:15] system as a result of their politics unfortunately we've discovered that that principle was far too [1:22] often violated in the course of arctic frost and the ensuing investigations and it's right that we [1:28] focus on shed light on demand answers and also accountability so that we can better ensure that [1:34] it doesn't happen again moving forward mr smith i wanted to start with the initiation of arctic frost [1:40] investigation the arctic frost investigation was opened by the fbi in april of 2022 before ultimately [1:48] being assumed by your work after being appointed as special counsel in november of that year while i [1:54] understand you weren't personally involved in the initiation of arctic frost it was the investigation [2:00] that ultimately evolved into your 2020 case against president trump yes or no do you accept that the arctic frost [2:09] was initiated by fbi personnel that were clearly infected by political bias and before you answer if you [2:18] will pull your microphone closer to you um i find it interesting that i'm the only one that's having [2:22] a hard time to hear sorry sorry about that how's that that's better okay um i can't really speak to uh [2:29] what happened before i was special counsel what i can share is that the investigation i took over uh i made [2:35] sure politics played no role yeah but beforehand just yes or no i mean you you know you know the same [2:41] things that we do and probably even more you know the political bias of timothy tebow you've seen [2:47] that laid out for you you don't believe in any way that that affected his work in arctic frost yes or no [2:56] i do not know uh do you believe that it affected his work yes or no i can't speak to that i did not [3:04] work with timothy tebow it is your job to actually look at these things and figure out where there is [3:09] bias where there is fact where is fiction you know what ensued you you know what happened you've seen some [3:15] of the same things that he said online you saw what he said about president trump you've seen the post [3:20] there that he made about catholic priest and and and slurs towards catholicism you've you've been [3:28] presented with the information that he's made um about president trump his linkedin profile picture [3:34] there with the washington post um being on his profile saying the trump administration abuses just [3:41] will say you you you know that stuff yes or no you know some of that you're saying whoa whoa none of [3:47] this has ever been brought to your attention yes or no uh i uh never have in all of this timothy tebow no [3:56] one's ever brought any of this this political bias that he has clearly shared on social media accounts [4:03] biased against catholicism bias no one's ever shared that with you yes or no uh senator i'm here to testify [4:12] about my work as special counsel sir i get to use this time to ask you a question and you know that [4:16] this is very simple yes or no and can you not answer that i can i'm sure there are things in the [4:25] media about this agent no i didn't ask what's in the media i asked what's in you do you know has this [4:31] ever been brought to your attention this is not hard this is not a trick question you're telling me that [4:38] you you took over this guy's entire investigation and you never looked at any of these things that [4:44] all of us can see in open source that's a lie it's not true yes or no do you know any of these things [4:51] i just said or anything similar to this about timothy tebow i don't know the things you're saying to be [4:58] true because i was not there at that time so you took over an investigation ultimately in 2024 [5:06] tebow was found to have been violated the u.s office of special counsel violated the hatch act [5:11] for anti-trump political conduct while at the fbi and you were saying you took over his investigation [5:19] and and and and nothing you you didn't look into any of this you know you know none of this so i guess [5:24] that that goes to say that you didn't go back and check his work yes or no i did check the work that [5:31] was done before i was there and i did not see in that work any evidence of political bias whatsoever [5:39] i looked at that closely did you see were you ever brought to your attention that he had political [5:43] bias statements out in out in the public yes or no i do not recall discussing look you're really smart [5:52] you can recall that surely surely surely either that or you skated through harvard some other way [6:01] i mean come on it's not hard [6:05] this is not a hard question look it's clear that mr tebow actually made investigative decisions [6:17] related to president trump and arctic frost and had a political bias and had an agenda it's unbelievable [6:31] that you would take over such a case that would have such ramifications on our nation and you wouldn't [6:38] do your due diligence i don't believe it i don't believe it and for you to sit in front of this [6:46] committee and not answer a simple question when you say you're here to tell us all about it and you [6:51] can't tell us whether or not you looked at the biased of the gentleman before you it's just absurd [7:00] and look look in that vein i want to turn to some of the excesses that occurred once you and your team [7:06] fully took over the arctic frost investigation starting with the erosion of the separation of [7:10] powers it's been widely reported that you and your team issued some 44 subpoenas related to the [7:16] tolling records of at least 20 republican members of congress including at least eight u.s senators [7:22] including at least four members of this committee and the subpoenas issued to telecom companies for [7:27] member toll records included court records non-disclosure orders attempting to bar [7:32] telecommunication companies from providing any notice any notice to impacted members the ndo attached [7:44] to the subpoenas stated that non-disclosure was necessary because among other things disclosure of [7:51] subpoenas would lead to quote destruction of or tampering with evidence and quote intimidation of [7:57] potential witnesses so with respect to members of this committee whose records were subpoenaed [8:04] do you believe that there were reasonable grounds to conclude that the senators on this committee [8:09] were going to engage in destruction of tampering with evidence or intimidation of a potential [8:17] witness if notified about a subpoena yes or no no our concern was that president trump but that's what [8:23] you said that's what you said so chairman can we let the witness answer you know what that is what [8:31] you said you said and my question is a yes or no and he answered it he answered it that's incorrect so [8:38] based on the records released by chairman grassley it appears the actual reason for the ndos [8:44] was to avoid giving those members the opportunity to challenge the subpoenas pursuant to the protection that [8:52] they enjoyed under the constitution's speech and debate clause at the beginning you said that you [8:59] had no partisan loyalty and you said you were very familiar with all of this law but you and your team [9:06] were aware of the protections and chose a court of action that nonetheless was designed to undermine them [9:15] to undermine senator graham to undermine senator cruz senator holly senator blackburn it's ironic to me that [9:23] and carrying out an investigation framed by many particularly on the left as a righteous crusade [9:31] to defend democracy and the constitution your team took actions to directly undermine the separation of powers [9:41] at the heart of the constitution the fruit of the poisonous tree continues to grow and i'd like to ask several more [9:55] questions um yes sir well you know a lot of people got back and forth time that wasn't included and [10:04] people have gotten minutes afterwards so i'm going to ask one more question please sir mr smith it's your [10:12] testimony to this committee that you observe the proper investigative protocols at all times including [10:21] the filter team protocols yes we sought to do things consistent with the law and department policy at all [10:28] times and just a clarification you never said that you wanted this case not to one person [10:35] in any way shape or form did you seek this case i previously explained that i had contacted a former [10:45] colleague and indicated to him i wish i wish to come back to the justice department if there was a case [10:51] where i could be of use this ended up being that case and i accepted the position when you never mentioned [10:58] this case never when i brought up the idea of coming back to the justice department i do not recall [11:07] mentioning this case i'm not even sure um the exact timeline of that what i can say is that eventually [11:14] it is correct that this position was offered to me and i did accept it thank you